Hoarding is about mental illness, not clutter

July 7, 2012|By Diane C. Lade, Staff writer

There's mail stacking up on your kitchen table, and a pile of clothes completely obscures your sofa. Boxes of holiday decorations pack your hall closet, since you don't have a basement, and unread magazines are piled in the corner.

Are you scatter-brained and sloppy, in need of a good personal organizer or a storage unit? Or do you have a mental disorder that requires psychotherapy? Experts say it can be a fine line between bad housekeeping and clutter addiction.

"When there are some piles here and there, it just seems like a lot of stuff," said Marcia Pinck, who handles outreach and educational programs for the Mental Health Association of Southeast Florida in Lauderhill. "You need to look at how that behavior is impacting their lives."

That magazine pile doesn't mean you have a problem, for example. But if the pile is so big it's half-blocking the entrance to your kitchen, and you can't bring yourself to throw a single issue away because you're convinced you'll need it some day, you could be a hoarder.

Hoarders are people who are mentally ill and often suffer from multiple conditions. About 57 percent also have depression, and 17 percent have an obsessive compulsive disorder, according to a 2007 study. There has been little research on hoarding. But experts believe up to 6 percent of the population could have the condition — which would translate into a little less than 1 million Floridians.

Hoarders are most likely to be middle-aged or senior citizens. It's not known exactly why, "but it may be that they have lost a lot of things in life that once gave them satisfaction," said Barry S. Organ, a licensed clinical social worker and consultant in Broward County who develops training programs on hoarding.

"They've lost their work contacts and maybe haven't planned for retirement. They haven't been able to transition to other things that satisfy them," Organ said.

Randy Frost, a hoarding expert and psychology professor at Smith Collegein Massachusetts, has found hidden hoarding tendencies can kick into high gear for boomers when their elderly parents die. "They inherit all this stuff and can't get rid of it," Frost said.

Hoarders appear to have neurological deficits that make it difficult for them organize and categorize items, Frost said, so they end up putting everything in a big pile. They also have an abnormal attachment to even worthless objects, "because each possession carries an opportunity. If they throw it away, the whole opportunity is lost, not just the object," said Frost, who along with Gail Steketee co-authored the book "Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things."

Popular reality TV shows like TLC's "Hoarding: Buried Alive" have forced extreme clutter into the spotlight, inviting the public to virtually wander through rooms stuffed with paper, useless trash and rotting garbage. But while mental health workers agree they have raised awareness, they worry these shows give the false impression that hoarders are eccentrics who should just hire a good cleaning service.

Organ said hoarders often become literally hysterical when do-gooders sweep in and clean up; about half of them have needed emergency hospitalization in the cases Organ covered. And unless the packrat gets into therapy, the house usually is looking like a dumpster once again within weeks, he said.

Hoarders aren't necessarily weird recluses, like the once-wealthy mother and daughter living in a decaying mansion in the HBO movie "Grey Gardens."

Police responding to a Davie house fire June 30 suggested that the 65-year-old woman who died, Geraldine Burke, might have had a hoarding problem because they had to clear out piles of debris in order to investigate the fire's cause. One neighbor called Burke, who police think was overcome by smoke, a "recluse."

But Burke's friends at St. David Catholic Church in Davie said they saw her regularly at prayer vigils and Mass.

"She was a kind and gentle person," said Lisa Lupari, who knew Burke through a prayer group. "There had been sadness in her life recently, but she never let it get to her."

State investigators with adult protective services often come across hoarders when responding to calls from neighbors, complaining a foul smell is coming from an apartment, or about a roach or and rat infestation.

Regional Program Manager Emilio Maicas, who handles Broward and Palm Beach counties for the Department of Children & Families, remembers state workers and firefighters going into one Hollywood woman's home.

"When we walked in, it was stacked floor to ceiling," he said. "We didn't even know she had any furniture, it was completely covered. She was sleeping on top of 8 feet of trash."

Even the closest neighbors were shocked, Maicas said, as they had seen the woman outside regularly, smiling pleasantly on her way to the store. The intervention team took out 150 bags of trash.